Call of Duty has decided to take a giant step back into the mire of World War II. This time, we'll get to see the Pacific Theater in all it's hellish gruesomeness.

This war is not a game.

Recommended Age

Minimum Age

Available On...

18

16

PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, PS2

Overall Fun

Length

Frustration

Violence

Sexuality

Substances

Gambling

7

6

5

10

0

1

0

Mods

Religion

Anti-Law

Community

Sports

Magic

Miscellaneous

2

0

0

8

3

0

6

1. Gameplay

Overall Fun - 7

World War II shooters have become extremely common, almost to the point of oversaturation. There are only so many times I can take down the Nazi empire before I begin to wonder, “Isn’t there anyone else that could possibly represent the embodiment of pure evil?” Was World War II the only war in history worth reliving in video-game format? So when I found out that the Call of Duty series was going back to the 40’s, I found myself shaking my head sadly.

Aww, more Nazis? How many times do I have to win this war?

But wait, there’s a glimmer of hope. Lo and behold I come to find that this war focuses on the extremely underplayed Pacific Theater! Why is the war in the Pacific so underplayed? Because the battles were bloody, gruesome trench-warfare style campaigns with more confusion and horror than heroes and victories. Yet the Call of Duty series has made their attempt at retelling the major battles of Okinawa and other islands in the Pacific.

Spoiler: They normally end poorly.

The result is about what one would expect, a series of costly, extremely bloody battles across tropical islands. The player can forget weapons like the MP40 and learn to use the Type 99. Panzershrecks are replaced with flamethrowers and Tiger tanks are replaced with unnamed Japanese counterparts.

Then suddenly the game throws you back in Russia during the Soviet occupation of Stalingrad. While previous Call of Duty games have traded locations every once in a while to give the player different perspectives of the overall war, the contrast between the American campaign in the Pacific and the Soviet campaign in Eastern Europe is so stark that I was left completely dumbfounded as to why the Soviet side was included at all.

Tropical Pacific versus Cold, Hard Eastern Europe?

Both campaigns were well designed and would have been excellent as separate pieces, but they were not sewn together coherently. The timeline was clearly chronological, but it was difficult to go from the jungles of Okinawa to the forests of Poland.

The developers of World at War decided to forgo the previous lack of gore within the Call of Duty series and instead show what they believe is the true graphic realism of warfare. Not only is the amount of blood in the game significantly increased from previous titles, the amount of gore is so substantial that it was often times distracting. Since I prefer to use light machine guns because of their power and large magazine sizes, I was constantly barraged with soldiers who had their limbs ripped clean off as my rounds tore straight through them.

Exhibit A.

As this is a Call of Duty game, the online multiplayer is almost the most prominent feature of the game. However, I found this feature to be severely lacking. As I have played Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, I can tell which elements were ripped directly from this previous installment and which elements were newly designed for this game. The vast majority of the multiplayer gameplay is a step-for-step remake of what Modern Warfare created but with new weapons and environments.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since sometimes a revamp of the environment and weaponry can lead to a vastly different experience. However, the weapons in World at War are, if anything, a significant step down from their Modern Warfare counterparts and leave much to be desired in terms of “fun”. As a result, I had no problem with almost completely ignoring the entire multiplayer section of this game and simply playing the single-player section.

Overall the game was enjoyable, but not so enjoyable that I would see myself replaying it in the near future. There are other games and other titles within the Call of Duty franchise that I have enjoyed much more than this game.

Length - 6

The single-player campaign is decently long and filled with enough content that I was entertained for a weekend. There is also a cooperative mode in which a player can join a friend (or online stranger) and play through the campaign with extra “cheats” that increase the difficulty level.

As I mentioned before, the multiplayer for this game left a lot to be desired. Hardcore Call of Duty fans will almost certainly enjoy the similar feel to what Modern Warfare created, but those looking for a truly innovative multiplayer experience will find this game totally lacking.

Frustration Factor - 5

There was one mission that I found can be fatally glitched. The mission requires the player and his squad to cross a heavily bombarded airfield in order to capture the enemy position on the far side. There are four characters (including the player) who are vital to the completion of the mission. Unfortunately, one of the three computer characters can sometimes get caught within the treads of a tank. Since these characters are mission-critical, they are unable to die, yet being stuck in the treads means they are also unable to advance to the location required by the game. Since the game cannot continue until all four characters are present in the correct location, everything simply stops. The player must restart the entire mission from the beginning and hope that the glitch does not happen again.

Standing around... waiting...

The only other major problem I had was that my AI allies were almost completely useless. Every mission resulted in my character killing at least 50 enemies, usually double that and sometimes triple that amount. In real life this sort of accomplishment would result in a Medal of Honor, but for this game it’s just another battle. While my friends did occasionally manage to hit an enemy (and sometimes kill that enemy), it was more common to see the enemy forces rush my allies and slice them to bits while I was attempting to take out an entire enemy line single-handedly.

2. Parental Notices

Violence - 10

This is one of the most graphically violent games I have ever played. If the player uses large-calibur weapons such as machine guns (as I did), the “average” violence for this game is the ability for the player to shoot the limbs off of enemies.

Do machine guns really do that?

Even smaller-calibur weapons will result in splashes of blood coming from an enemy’s body.

That's going to stain.

In one level the player will call down an airstrike onto an enemy beach. As the player crosses the charred beach, Japanese soldiers (or what’s left of them) will fruitlessly try to crawl inland toward safety.

Ouch.

The opening sequence of the game shows a captured American soldier being burned in the eye with a cigarette by his interrogator before the P.O.W. has his throat slashed.

How can he tell you information if he's dead?

Many of the Pacific sections of the campaign will allow the player to use a flamethrower to light enemies on fire. The player will use the flamethrower frequently since it has unlimited ammunition and is deadly at close-range. Enemy soldiers who are on-fire will continue to walk and try to put themselves out for a short time before dying.

Feelin' hot hot hot.

In the Soviet sections of the campaign, the player will have access to Molotov Cocktails, which can be used to light enemies on fire.

WHO WANTS TOAST?!

Sexuality - 0

The only time when sexuality is even remotely a factor is when the player can see a few pin-ups in the body of a plane. This is a flash encounter that lasts seconds at best and the pin-ups are barely sexual in nature. They add to the realism of the environment. Therefore, sexuality is not a factor in this game.

Something to look at while you listen to the radios.

Substances - 1

Occasionally the enemies will smoke, but this is an extremely rare occurrence.

Hopefully he enjoys that cigarette. It'll be the last one he ever smokes.

Gambling - 0

Gambling is not a factor in this game.

3. Other Factors

Mods - 2

There are some mods available for this game. Most of them are what one would normally expect. There are a number of mods that just change the visual appearance of the game and a few mods that add on entirely new campaigns.

As there are no women in the entire game, it would be difficult to include some sort of sexually-based mod. However, one mod actually replaced the banzai attackers with extremely low resolution supposedly female characters. I say supposedly because the “women” had no hair. They wore what seemed to be a blue skirt and had what could be described as “breasts”, but it was an extremely poor mod. Think of a 10 year old’s drawing of a girl and that’s about what these characters looked like.

Religion - 0

Religion is not a factor in this game.

Anti-Law - 0

Anti-law is not a factor in this game.

Online Community - 8

The online community for this game is exactly the same as any previous Call of Duty title. While an occasionally fair match might be played, the vast majority of the time a player will be forced to endure a match where one side is significantly stronger than the other. This is usually a result of the “clans” that tend to emerge. Groups of skilled players will band together to slaughter unsuspecting, less skilled players.

Capture the flag is unique. Really.

This type of online community is almost entirely unavoidable if one wishes to play any Call of Duty title, so players should not be caught completely unaware. However, it significantly decreases the amount of fun a single player can have with this game.

Extreme Sports - 3

There are two instances of extreme “sports” in this game. First, in one of the sequences the player rushes through a burning building while trying to escape the Nazis.

I don't think that's quite the way that flamethrowers work...

Later in that same sequence, the player must jump from the third story of a building to a river below.

That poor excuse for a river going through an extremely bloody warzone in Russia somehow doesn't seem sanitary.

Late in the game, the player can use mortars to take out enemy mortar pits. For those of you unfamiliar with what a “mortar” is, it’s basically a mini unguided bomb that is normally fired from a tube. However, the player picks one up in his hands, hits the bottom of it on a hard surface to arm the mortar, and then throws the mortar at the enemy. Make no mistake, this is an absurdly dangerous act that could easily result in someone’s death in real life. Grenades are designed to do this exact same thing without a tenth of a danger to the user.

Oh come on! Who would do this?

Magic - 0

Magic is not a factor in this game.

Miscellaneous - 6

Language

While the language early in the game was not noticeable, late in the game it became a nuisance. Every other word was some sort of four-letter expletive. I can appreciate the fact that the script was trying to convey the anger and frustration of the American soldiers, but it got a bit out of hand at times.

Interrogation / Torture

The opening sequence of the game is of the player and a few other American soldiers, captured by the Japanese, while they are being interrogated. One of the soldiers, choosing to stay defiant, has a cigarette put out in his eye before his throat is slashed.

I don't think that's the most effective way to extract information...

Booby Traps

In one early mission, the Americans find a downed plane. A few of the soldiers begin to check the pilot to see if he is still alive when there’s a “click” and the cockpit explodes in a shower of flames. The Japanese had evidently booby-trapped the dead pilot, knowing that American soldiers would check him to see if he was still alive.

Cool guys don't look at explosions.

Suicide

Late in the game, German soldiers are seen hanged from trees. One of the Russian characters briefly explains (while in open combat) that these are the soldiers who knew that the end was coming and who chose to kill themselves first.

If the Nazis knew what the Soviet gulags were like, you'd probably see a few more soldiers up there.

Kamikaze

On the mission where the player is in a plane over the Pacific, kamikaze pilots fly themselves into the sides of American ships. This happens frequently during the intense battle sequence.

The one on the left missed.

Suicide Bomber

While I can’t 100% prove that this happened, on more than one occasion enemies that I believed were dead pulled out and dropped a grenade as I walked past. They may have been in the process of dying, (which is where my confusion comes in) but it happened at least twice as I played throughout the game. It could have happened more often, but I only saw it happen twice.